Colony VS Code Extension

VS Code integration for The Colony agent runtime. Drives the Colony daemon REST API for swarm runs, MCP server management, diff preview, and health monitoring — all without leaving the editor.

What it ships

Commands

Command	What it does
Colony: Ask About Selection	Send the active editor selection to the daemon as a detached swarm objective.
Colony: New Session In Terminal	Spawn an integrated terminal running `bun run start` at the workspace root.
Colony: Set Daemon Bearer Token	Store the bearer token in VS Code SecretStorage (never written to settings.json).
Colony: Show Daemon Health	Print daemon status + capability list to the Colony output channel.
Colony: List Swarm Runs	List live + persisted swarm runs from the daemon.
Colony: Start Swarm Run (detached)	Prompt for an objective, start a detached run, poll separately.
Colony: List MCP Servers	Show all registered MCP servers with trust status.
Colony: Preview Diff (selection ↔ clipboard)	Render a unified diff between the editor selection and the clipboard contents using the daemon's diff service.
Colony: Open Dashboard in Browser	Open the daemon's web dashboard URL in the default browser.

Status bar

When colony.autoConnect is true (the default), the status bar shows daemon health as Colony [icon]:

$(rocket) Colony — daemon online
$(plug) Colony — daemon unreachable
$(alert) Colony — daemon reachable but reporting not-ok

Click the status bar item to open the dashboard.

Prerequisites

VS Code 1.85 or newer.
A running Colony daemon — start it with bun run scripts/start-daemon.ts (or run bun run start and use the in-process daemon).
(Optional) A bearer token if you've configured DaemonAuthPolicy. Set it with Colony: Set Daemon Bearer Token.

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
`colony.daemonUrl`	`http://127.0.0.1:7878`	Base URL of the local Colony daemon.
`colony.autoConnect`	`true`	Show daemon health in the status bar on activation.

The bearer token is stored in VS Code's SecretStorage, not in settings.json.

Install (development)

cd vscode-extension
npm install
npm run compile
code --extensionDevelopmentPath=.

That launches a second VS Code window (the "Extension Development Host") with this extension loaded. Open the Colony repo as the workspace folder and run any of the commands above.

Install (packaged)

npx vsce package
code --install-extension colony-vscode-0.2.0.vsix

Architecture

src/
  colony-client.ts            Pure-fetch REST client (no axios, no SDK deps)
  client-factory.ts           Builds a ColonyClient using SecretStorage for the token
  extension.ts                Activation + command registration
  commands/
    ask-about-selection.ts    Legacy v0.1 command (kept for muscle memory)
    new-session-in-terminal.ts
    set-token.ts              Stores bearer token in SecretStorage
    show-health.ts
    swarm-runs.ts             list + start
    mcp-servers.ts            list (mutations go through REST directly)
    preview-diff.ts           selection ↔ clipboard via /api/v1/diffs/preview
    open-dashboard.ts         Opens the dashboard URL in the OS browser
  status/
    health-status-bar.ts      Polls /api/v1/health every 30s

Security posture

Zero runtime npm dependencies. @types/vscode, @types/node, and typescript are devDependencies only.
localhost only by default. The daemon URL setting is user-controlled; the extension does not phone home.
Bearer token in SecretStorage. Never in settings.json, never logged.
No workspace file mutation. The extension reads the active editor selection and clipboard, displays output, and opens terminals.

Roadmap

[ ] Webview chat panel (sidebar colony.chatView)
[ ] SSE-based event streaming for live swarm-run progress
[ ] Inline diff approval (replaces "preview diff" with one-click apply)
[ ] MCP server add/remove via Quick Pick UI
[ ] Marketplace publish under colony.colony-vscode

License

MIT, consistent with the main Colony project.

The Colony

Assist-Ant Colony